Infinite Games

Key Highlights

• James Carse: “There are at least two kinds of games: finite and infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.”
• We ask “Who are you?” but mean “Which boxes have you checked?” — single, married, kids, job, income, address, languages.
• The paradox of finite winning: “The more we are recognized as winners, the more we know ourselves to be losers. That is why it is rare for the winners of highly coveted prizes to settle for their titles and retire. Winners must prove repeatedly they are winners.”
• “There is a contradiction here: If the prize for winning finite play is life, then the players are not properly alive. They are competing for life… Finite players play to live; they do not live their playing.”
• The most successful people — with billions of dollars and fame — “can’t stop chasing that next mountain. That next achievement. Because the last one, which took years to accomplish, lost its luster in minutes.”
• The prescription: “spend your 4,680 weeks in pursuit of the things that you actually enjoy pursuing. Accomplishments should be the byproduct of your pursuits, not your only motivation.”
• Carse on infinite work: “An infinite player does not begin working for the purpose of filling up a period of time with work, but for the purpose of filling work with time… Work is not a way of arriving at a desired present and securing it against an unpredictable future, but of moving toward a future which itself has a future.”